An operator of a mobile communication network, e.g. according to the GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), is normally assisted by a cell planning tool in designing, planning and optimizing the network. A cellular mobile communication network comprises a large number of cell sites, each cell site comprising an antenna arrangement configured to provide the desired cell coverage. FIG. 1a is a perspective view illustrating an exemplary conventional antenna 12 of a cell site, and FIG. 1b is a top view of said antenna 12, schematically illustrating three antenna sectors, 14a, 14b, 14c, providing coverage in three cells, and the sectors may have different transmission frequencies. The antenna is mounted on the cell site with a certain configuration indicated by parameters regarding e.g. the height, the transmitting signal output power, antenna type and the direction, and parameters describing the network configuration is preferably stored in a cell planning tool of the operator.
A conventional cell planning tool is normally provided with several algorithms using the above-described stored parameters to calculate the network performance, and the algorithms may include e.g. traffic distribution algorithms and Monte Carlo simulators. The cell planning tool uses map data as input to the algorithms, together with various network configuration data regarding e.g. the base station hardware and other auxiliary hardware, such as feeders and combiners. The output from the cell planning tool comprises network performance information, such as e.g. an estimation of the cell site coverage area and the predicted signal strength in different locations within the coverage area, and the operator may use this information for cell planning in order to plan and optimize the network for achieving certain network key performance indicator targets.
Obviously, the parameters stored in the cell planning tool regarding e.g. the antenna configuration, such as the height and the angular orientation of the antenna, will always deviate to some extent from the actual height and angular orientation of the antenna, but preferably the deviations will be negligible. If the deviation of the network configuration parameters stored in the cell planning tool from the actual deployed network configuration parameters is negligible, the resulting errors in the output from the cell planning tool will be small. However, larger errors may sometimes occur, e.g. if the antenna element is not mounted on the intended height or with the intended angular orientation.
Thus, to avoid any detrimental effect on the network performance caused by large deviations, manual inspections and audits of the cell site and the antenna must be performed regularly in order to check e.g. that the mounting of the antenna section corresponds to the stored parameters regarding the height and angular orientation of the antenna, but such manual audits are very costly.
Therefore, it still presents a problem to correlate stored parameters associated with a cell site configuration in a cell planning tool with the actual deployed cell site configuration in a cost-efficient way, avoiding manual audits of the cell site.